National Film Board of Canada puts its archives online, free

Andrew sez, "The National film Board of Canada (NFB) has opened up its vault - more than 700 films, clips and trailers are now available on the film board's new website launched today. From entertaining shorts and cartoons, to deeply moving or disturbing documentaries - they're all there for free, with more being added every week."

Hell yes. This is how public money should be spent. And yes, they have The Big Snit, my all-time favorite NFB short.

In my family that ecstatic hand gesture that the guy makes when he realizes it’s 2 o’clock and therefore time for “Sawing For Teens” is THE de-facto signal we all make when we’re thrilled by something geeky. Wonderful!

Its wonderful that all of these films are now freely available on the net now; I can remember watching a lot of these, (along with the “short circuitz” clips that used to played on YTV) during my childhood.

If you like the Big Snit, check out “Mindscape”, “The Sand Castle”, or “Blackfly”. Great Stuff.

Damn, Takuan, I was just about to say Blackfly, since Paul567 beat me to Log Driver’s Waltz. Is there no Wade Hemsworth left for me to spread the word about? Anyway, good work, NFB. My tax dollars were never better spent.

Unfortunately, I don’t see one of my favorites: “What on Earth!” by Les Drew and Kaj Pindal.

This Oscar-nominated 1966 animated short is credited to the National Film Board of Mars, a ‘documentary’ explaining what scientists have been able to glean from their first glimpses of life on the third planet.

I love The Big Snit. It’s so great to be able to watch all our favorite Canadian shorts online. Lots of good shorts still coming from Canada today… One example is the animated short contest going on at http://www.superu.ca

This is fantastic!
As a kid, some of my favourite memories of elementary school were when the teacher would put a reel of film on the projector and we’d watch a cartoon from the NFB. I’m pretty sure I saw The Sweater at least once a year (usually around playoff season), and the Log Driver’s Waltz used to show up on TV on a pretty regular basis.

Cory (and other fans of early film comedies) take note: The Railrodder, which is listed in Matt’s (@#30) list of upcoming releases for February, was one of Buster Keaton’s final movies and hearkened back to his silent film days. The film is distinctly Canadian in that it features Keaton riding the CP rail tracks straight across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

As for what else I’ll be looking out for, there’s really so much to list:
–> Any animations by: Richard Condie, Cordell Barker, Torill Kove, Ryan Larkin, etc.
–> Other bits of animated Canadiana: The Hockey Sweater, Blackfly, Log-driver’s Waltz, etc.
–> The cheesy films that I remember seeing in school: Hinterland Who’s Who, The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes, Tara’s Mulch Garden, etc.

But what I’m really looking forward to is finding gems among all the other films that I’ve never seen before.

rilly?this is where ‘Paddle to the sea” comes frum? wow! i wonder if they have the “blaze glory” shorts…those were the ones with stop-motion guys on motorcycles/horses that seem invisible. hilarity ensued. and didn’t they do the animated ” radical ideas threaten societies and then become societies which are threatened by radical ideas….” cartoon. pure awesomesauce!

This is wonderful. I haven’t seen “The Big Snit” in over fifteen years. My favorite childhood cartoons were some NFB animation shorts from a VHS my dad bought on a family trip to Vancouver when I was a little guy.
Good job, Canada!
Good job, boingboing!

Unfortunately, as was pointed out to me…Canada’s NFB has simply become a repository for past glory. Once one of the most innovative film and animation studio in the world, now only provides us with these timeless, but old classics.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that this stuff is now available like this, but I do mourn the death of the initiative that created these wonderful film and animation classics.

OK, here’s an easy-to-become timeless waiting for a documentarist with minimal funds: Tomslake, Canada.
A tiny community torn by bombings, police stupidity, corporate greed, life and death, bribery,neighbor against neighbor, death of the hinterland, environmental rape – a metaphor for the planet. Go on, tell me I’m wrong.

Does anyone know where I could view Blaze Glory? (Yup). I thought this film was hillarious and also Opening Speech? We used to rent a film projector and a screen at the local library and watched the alot of these films growing up. We had a riot viewing these. I would love my kids too see them.